TALKING HORSE

“April, time to eat. Come on, girl. Come get your oats.”

The horse came over to the edge of the rail and began putting her nose in my hand. Her nose felt warm and soft. I leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Here you go, eat up now.”

“Thanks for the oats,” she said, as she started gulping them down.

“Hello? Are you talking?” I asked. “This is too weird.”

“Sure, I’m talking. What do you think I am, a useless horse?”

I looked at her bony jaw bouncing up and down. Is she really talking or just eating? It was pretty early in the morning; maybe I was dreaming. I decided that must be it. I turned to go back to bed. But just as I did, April said, “Amber, don’t you want to stay and chat?”

I twirled around and said, “Oh my gosh! It’s true!”

“Of course it’s true,” she said. “I finally realized I could trust you, so I thought I’d make some early morning conversation.”

“But, why didn’t you talk to me before? Or to anyone else?” I still wasn’t sure if I was just hearing things, or maybe I was just going crazy.

“No, you are not crazy,” April said.

“What, you can read minds too?”

She gave a loud whinny. “No, I could just tell what you were thinking by the look on your face. As for not telling anyone before, I wanted to make sure no one would try and make me famous by putting me on TV or selling me to some movie director. You see, I like my life here. I don’t want it to change. However, I wouldn’t mind writing a book about my life. That’s where you come in.”

“What? How?” I said, not knowing what she meant.

April held up one of her front hooves. “No fingers,” she said calmly.

“Yeah. So?” I still didn’t understand.

“I need you to write everything down for me,” she said, and tossed her mane back with another loud whinny.